Electrophysiology catheters are commonly used for mapping electrical activity in a heart. Electrophysiology is a specialty within the field of cardiology for diagnosis and treatment of electrical abnormalities of the heart. By mapping the electrical activity in the heart, ectopic sites of electrical activation or other electrical activation pathways that contribute to heart malfunctions may be detected. This type of information may then allow a cardiologist to intervene and destroy the malfunctioning heart tissues by targeted delivery of radio frequency energy. Such destruction of heart tissue is referred to as ablation, which is a rapidly growing field within electrophysiology and obviates the need for maximally invasive open heart surgery.
Attached to the electrophysiology catheters are electrodes, which are used to map, or collect electrical information about, the electrical activity in the heart. Such catheters are generally inserted percutaneously and fed through one or more major blood vessels into a chamber of the heart. A location sensor in the catheter, typically near the catheter's distal end, produces signals that are used to determine the position of the device relative to a frame of reference, such as a position external to the body or within the heart itself The location sensor may be active or passive and may operate by generating or receiving electrical, magnetic or ultrasonic energy fields or other suitable forms of energy known in the art.
It would be desirable to provide a device that could easily and efficiently map the electrical activity in the heart to permit effective targeted radio frequency delivery to ablate malfunctioning heart tissue.